Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan Calls ‘Song For A Son’ A ‘Folk Song’

Anybody who saw one of the [artist id=”1165669″]Smashing Pumpkins[/artist]’ 20th-anniversary concerts last year would have already been familiar with the new tune “A Song for a Son.” Everyone else got to hear the song this week, when Billy Corgan released it
as part of his ambitious new project Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, an album that will consist of 44 tracks released at regular intervals over the next three years, all of which will be available to download for free.

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The studio version is a dramatic departure from the song everybody heard in concert. “The live version was a real meat-and-potatoes version,” Corgan told MTV News, expressing his frustration with it. “It sounded like a bar band playing it. I was sort of unhappy with it because I knew there was more there.”

Corgan describes “A Song for a Son” as “a folk song.” “A lot of the songs I write have a lot of chord changes, which opens them up to a lot of interpretation,” he said, explaining how the tune’s basic structure forced him to explore and expand. “Whenever you do a song like that, a Bob Dylan type of song, you have to keep it interesting. And my harmonica playing isn’t very good,” he added, which is why there are two huge guitar solos and a handful of dynamic shifts.

Though there is no word on when the next song from Teargarden by Kaleidyscope will appear, you can follow his progress in the studio at the blog he has set up (which also explores some Smashing Pumpkins history).